Dark Memories
by Hylianinja
Summary: A fic I wrote that explores my own version of Aichi's childhood, explaining why his father currently isn't around. Small amount of Kaichi in later chapters.


Warning: This fic contains mature content involving violence and explicit detail. If you do not approve of that sort of thing, this may not be the fic for you.

Author's note: Greetings readers~! This fic is going to be kind of different from what I've uploaded in the past, hence the warning above. Also, I do not consider this story to follow the CFV canon entirely since it's currently unclear as to why Aichi's father isn't around in the anime. But I thought it would be interesting to explore that side of Aichi's life. Also, it was tricky to narrow down Aichi and Emi's ages during the time this fic takes place, but I hope I was able to figure it out. Anime can be tricky like that. xD;

For the sake of the story, I've taken the libery of naming Aichi's parents:

His mother is known here as Kahou and his father is Takano.

Enjoy~

Dark Memories ~ Chapter 1: A dark secret

Aichi Sendou; a 9 year old boy who lives with his mother, father and 6 year-old sister, Emi. For as long as he could remember, his family was never like everyone else's. His mother worked long hours at an office across town for a bed linen company and couldn't always be home to take care of him and his younger sister. In her place, their father would usually have the task of looking after them. But over time, things changed and were never the way their mother pictured them as she left for work on a nightly basis.

"I'm off to work now," Kahou gently kissed her family good-bye for the evening before putting on her work shoes and heading out the door.

With their mother's absence, the house grew louder than usual as their father turned up the television and grew more and more obnoxious as he downed beer after beer.

Kahou was aware that Takano liked to drink while he watched television, but was unaware of the demon it unleashed within him since he always reverted back to his normal self by the time they all woke up the next morning.

There was no question that their father had loved both of his children at some point, but with each can he consumed, his personality changed and his ferocity increased as he plunged head-first into the life of nocturnal alcoholism. Every night after seeing Kahou off to work, he would sit in front of the television and drink. With a decent fortune put away and already retired, Takuya didn't have to worry about working a stable job.

Before he had taken up drinking more heavily, Takuya used to enjoy playing games with his children. Almost every weeknight he would offer to play games with Aichi and Emi, but those nights turned into something that the children began to dread. They never ended well and a winner was never declared. When he wasn't absorbed in whatever was being shown on the television, he would offer to read and do homework with Emi. Ever since she had been born, Aichi had become like a thorn in his side. He would give his daughter nothing but praise, but it would be the exact opposite for Aichi.

Aichi on the other hand, didn't mind being ignored all that much. He became used to being alone since his mother was already often out of the house and grew to be wary of his father, doing everything in his power to just be the best son he possibly could.

The kind-hearted, young boy would never forget the night that their father first showed his true, violent self.

"You have to promise you won't tell mom about this, Emi." Aichi whispered to his little sister as they huddled together in her room.

"Why can't we tell mom, Aichi?" Emi looked confused.

"Because..."Aichi paused, contemplating whether or not he was making the right decision. "It would only worry her, wouldn't it? And we don't want to worry mom, do we?"

Emi looked anxious as her eyes shifted from the red mark on Aichi's face to the bruise on his arm. She didn't fully understand why they couldn't voice their fears, but she trusted her big brother.

"It's okay, Emi." Aichi reassured his little sister. "It was probably just an accident. He's not mad at both of us."

"Yeah," Emi replied quietly.

But it hadn't been an accident. Over the next few nights, the cycle would repeat itself. Their dad that they knew and loved would disappear over and over and a monster would ravage the house. This monster would storm about their small home, cursing the gods for burdening him with Aichi's birth. And yet at the same time, he held nothing but adoration for his daughter, Emi. He knew how brilliant she was and how she was intelligent beyond her years. He would constantly remind both of his children how proud he was of her. And how much of a disappointment Aichi was and always would be in his eyes.

"Are you trying to burn me?" Their father yelled, getting up out of his chair. The hot plate Aichi had been holding on a dinner tray fell to the floor off to the side of him. He automatically recoiled as a few splashes from the hot soup burned his bare feet. He froze in place, waiting for a kick or a slap and became terrified when his father instead, grabbed him by his shirt collar and started walking toward the dark hallway.

"C'mere, you!" His father sounded disgruntled as he dragged his son into his bedroom, not bothering to turn on any light.

All Aichi could do was shake within his father's grasp. He never bothered trying to run away or hide. There was no escape from the dark shadow that always seemed to loom over him.

"I'm so sick of looking at you!" Aichi's father yelled as he threw his son onto his bed. "If you can't even work a fucking microwave, you don't deserve to eat tonight!"

As his bedroom door slammed, Aichi curled into a ball and began his nightly ritual. He held himself close as he trembled and cried, thinking of how he should have let the plate cool off. How everything was always his fault. And how he didn't understand why he could never make his father happy no matter what he did. He didn't want to come to terms with the fact that things would probably be this way forever and that his mom was so happy in the mornings before he and his sister left for school. He didn't want to make her sad or worry her by telling her about the pain he felt every night. Not to mention the fear he had of his father finding out about it. He doubted she would even believe him if he were to tell her that their father is a monster in disguise.

"Emi!" Aichi flinched when he heard his sister's name called. He knew he wouldn't harm a single hair on her precious head, but he still felt scared. She had to be worried about him.

"I don't want you going in there right now," his father said. It sounded like he was cleaning up the mess that had spilled all over the living room floor.

"But I want to play with Aichi," Emi said.

Aichi could see the shadows of his sister's feet from the other side of his closed door and felt sad that he wouldn't be able to play with her tonight.

"Aichi's already in bed. Why don't you play with daddy tonight?"

Emi lingered by the door for a moment before turning to join their father in the living room.

"I'm sorry, Emi." Aichi cried, once again blaming himself. He felt so exhausted that sleep overtook him before he could see anything else that night.


End file.
